Yale Law School study: benefits lag for sex-assault victims in military

NEW HAVEN >> A study by the veterans clinic at the Yale Law School found the Department of Veterans Affairs grants disability claims for victims of sexual assault at a significantly lower rate than for other post-traumatic stress disorder cases.

Kathryn Mammel, a law student who worked on the report, said it took three years of litigation with the Department of Veteran Affairs to get data that shows the disparity.

Veterans Affair did not respond to a request for comment.

The Veterans Legal Service Clinic at Yale Law School, the ACLU of Connecticut, the Service Women’s Action Network and the national American Civil Liberties Union want Veterans Affairs to change its regulations so victims of sexual assault don’t have a higher bar than other victims of trauma when they present cases for benefits.

Advertisement

“The regulations are stacked against them,” Mammel said.

There has been considerable testimony before Congress on the seriousness of the problem of sexual assault in the military and the latest discussion is around who hears the cases and decides on punishment for perpetrators.

The report said less well known is the fight veterans who survive these assaults go through when they apply to get a Veterans Affairs disability benefit for ongoing mental health issues connected to sexual trauma.

“They face a broken bureaucracy, with protracted delays and inaccurate adjudications. And based on records that VA has withheld until now, it is clear that veterans who survive in-service sexual trauma also face discrimination in seeking compensation,” according to the report.

The data show the grant rate for post-traumatic stress disorder claims tied to military sexual trauma has lagged behind claims for other forms of PTSD by between 16.5 percent percentage points and 29.6 percentage points every year.

The report said because female veterans’ PTSD claims are more often based on sexual assault than male veterans, female vets are disparately impacted by the lower grant rates.

For every year between 2008 and 2011, a gap of nearly 10 percentage points separated the overall grant rate for PTSD claims brought by women and those brought by men, the report says.

Mammel said particularly upsetting was the disparity they found in the treatment of these claims, which depended on the regional office where a woman filed. “It shouldn’t matter whether it is filed in St. Paul, Minn., Detroit, Mich. or St. Louis, Mo.,” she said. “It should be adjudicated on its merits.”

In 2012, only 25.8 percent of claims filed in St. Paul were granted, followed by 31.8 percent in Detroit and 37.9 percent in St. Louis. The highest percentage was granted at the regional office in Togus, Maine, where 48.1 percent of the 54 cases considered there were awarded disability benefits.

Mammel said if Veterans Affairs doesn’t change its procedures by more evenly handling these cases, it may take legislative action to protect victims of sexual assault who then suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.